The IF Blog » Healthcare

Diabetes Goes Global

Administrator — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:26:01 +0000

On March 24, the New England Journal of Medicine revealed that Type-2 diabetes afflicts 92.4 million Chinese adults. More than half of Chinese diabetics have not been formally diagnosed. This total is more than double earlier studies’ calculations, which put the figure closer to 43.2 million Chinese sufferers. India is estimated to have 50.8 million diabetics, according to the International Diabetes Federation. (Boston Globe, 3/26/10)

While Indians are known to have a genetic proclivity for diabetes, the incidence of diabetes in China is a wake-up call. If Type 2 is attributed to a high caloric diet and sedentary lifestyle, one has to question the ultimate extent of diabetes in the world. It could be a lot higher than assumed, and with expectations of healthcare coverage rising in emerging economies, the cost of diabetes treatment could skyrocket.

Charles Hess

The Oprah Effect

Administrator — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 20:48:58 +0000

Over the past decade the number of diabetes cases nationwide has increased by 90 percent, according to the CDC, making it the fastest-growing disease in the U.S.

Oprah Winfrey recently devoted an entire episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” to the prevention and treatment of diabetes – and pointed viewers to a nationwide free diabetes-testing campaign underway at Walgreens. During the first day after the show aired, more than 80,000 people visited Walgreens for testing. Approximately the same number of people were tested over the entire month of November when the pharmacy ran its previous free diabetes testing event. That time the pharmacy had NOT partnered with a TV show. (Drug Store News, 3/1/10)

Considering Oprah’s public entrance into U.S. politics during President Obama’s run for the White House, could the administration harness her marketing power and direct the infamous “Oprah Effect” at the nation’s rising healthcare costs?

Risa Hess

Primary-Care, Primary Problem

Administrator — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:33:02 +0000

In a Commonwealth Fund survey of 10,000 primary-care physicians in eleven industrialized countries, U.S. doctors had the worst score of all countries for making provisions for after-hours care. Two of three U.S. primary-care physicians made no allowance for care during evenings and weekends, leaving Americans no option but to seek help in more expensive hospital emergency rooms during such hours.

In another survey finding, 97 percent of doctors in the Netherlands, New Zealand and Norway use electronic medical records, while 46 percent of American doctors do. (Governing, 1/10)

In the healthcare bill making its way through Congress, changes planned for Medicaid alone will bring 15 million more patients into the United States’ healthcare system, each one likely to look for a primary care physician. Not only are fewer medical students going into general practice, but primary-care physicians are already behind the curve in providing health care at the most basic level. The reason for such a shortage of basic doctors’ services might have come through in another part of the survey: Fifty-eight percent of patients of primary-care physicians in the U.S. have trouble paying for the care they receive; the other countries in the survey had figures ranging from five to thirty-seven percent.

Ken Hey